I've been looking to buy an Android 7" tablet, hearing about the forthcoming launch of the Google Nexus tablet US price $199 (8gb) $249 (16gb) I was expecting it to be around £130 & £160 for the UK (using the current exchange rate). Looking on Google Play the UK cost is £159 & £199 :rolleyes2:

Once again we get ripped off, why is it that we always seem to lose out. Looks like I'll be looking at the cheap Chinese tablets & hope I pick a decent one.

Firefox

28-06-2012, 01:45

They charge what they think the local market can pay. The US has always had cheaper electronic goods, so historically they have an advantage.

Apple is another case in point; they have always charged the UK market well over the US prices. The solution...I think you already found it. ASUS are pretty good

baloothebear

28-06-2012, 04:59

IIRC, The Nexus is being made by Asus

Northerner

28-06-2012, 06:52

What rip-off? Add the 20% VAT that you'll pay in the UK to the US prices and there's little difference. People are always banging on about the difference between UK and US prices but there are good reasons, mainly the extra cost of doing business in Britain.

A couple of years ago the American electronics retailer Best Buy, the largest in the world, opened retail stores in Britain. Now, if British retailers are supposed to be making much more profit than their American counterparts, one would assume that Best Buy, with its enormous purchasing power and the supposed ability to work on lower margins, would have cleaned up. Er, no. They can't make money and have given up and have closed the stores and scooted back to the US with their tail between their legs.

Americans don't have 12.8% employers' N.I., four or five weeks paid holiday, maternity leave (also for men now!) people falling sick on holiday now able to claim the days that they were ill as working days and to be paid and take them later as extra holidays and all the rest of the costs that we bear. And as for land costs and rents in Britain!

The US is a massive market with two main languages as compared to a fragmented Europe with about thirty. Imagine the cost of doing business with thirty, mainly small countries, as opposed to one massive one.

So please, if you see a lower price in the US, don't scream rip-off and assume that someone in Britain is cleaning up. The chances are that they're making less than their US counterparts.

Viktor

28-06-2012, 09:53

Funny thing about tablets....do you remember when Psion first invented the personal organiser...small LCD black and white screen with keyboard about the size of a fat chequebook....followed by the Palm Pilot (competition).

I remember doing much on these little devices 20 years ago as what you can do with a smart phone now or an iPhone...except peole used to say they would not buy one because they were too bulky and couldn't be bothered to carry one around....

No one thinks twice now about an iPad or similar at about 4 times the size.

Somelier

28-06-2012, 14:27

Up to when I was made redundant last November, I worked in a shop selling specialist optical gear - mostly binoculars and spotting scopes.

On a pair of binoculars costing around £1000, we would get a margin of less than £100. That's margin, not profit. A camera shop that we had a good working relationship reckoned that they had a margin of less than 10% on cameras.

So, it's not the retailers that are making the huge profits, but it is the major distributors, especially those who are supplying their own brands, such as Leica and Swarovski!

Somelier

28-06-2012, 14:29

Funny thing about tablets....do you remember when Psion first invented the personal organiser...small LCD black and white screen with keyboard about the size of a fat chequebook....followed by the Palm Pilot (competition).

I remember doing much on these little devices 20 years ago as what you can do with a smart phone now or an iPhone...except peole used to say they would not buy one because they were too bulky and couldn't be bothered to carry one around....

No one thinks twice now about an iPad or similar at about 4 times the size.

I still use a Psion organiser, especially the Workabout. Because it was relatively easy to programme, I wrote data recording programs for my surveying projects. Saved lots of work!

scek

28-06-2012, 19:17

I disagree. Dollar to pounds on goods is never equal, its down to markets and distribution.
Ive been waiting for the kindle fire to hit these shores, and now google have laiunhed the Nexus 7.
At £159 and £199 I think its good value and have just pre ordered one - hoping though that the kindle app works on it. The google play bookstore is utter rubbish compared to kindle.